Legacy of a Gap Year by Justice

Legacy of a Gap Year by Justice - August 2019 Scholarship Essay

Justice Presley
August 15th, 2019
Varsity Tutors Scholarship

How Would You Make the Most of a Gap Year?
How would I make the most of a gap year? There are many things that I have yet to accomplish throughout my high school years that I have found a deep passion for. I would love to take the year to do these three things; continue my focus on cleaning up beaches and advocate for environmental sciences, continue to help end hunger through my work with Food For Good and lastly, to continue to fluently learn American Sign Language (ASL) and Spanish to help advocate for inclusion and diversity within my community.
Over the last year, I have discovered a passion for environmental sciences and advocating for those who don’t have a voice. I live in Salem Oregon, and love to visit Lincoln City and the beautiful beaches, but have recently discovered the excessive amount of trash accumulating, and decided to take matters into my own hands. With the inspiration from my teacher and my idea to create and conduct my own beach clean up, I contacted the organization Solve and decided to invite people I knew to clean up the Lincoln City beach. I would love to get the opportunity to complete more throughout a gap year.
Throughout the last three years in high school, I have partnered and participated with Food For Good. This organization raises money to send food to Rwanda and has people volunteer to package the food, which is then shipped and hand delivered to the kids and schools in Rwanda who are impoverished. I would love to be able to hand deliver the food to the kids in Rwanda and meet them, as they have inspired me to help end hunger not only in my hometown, but globally as well.
Lastly, I have been lucky enough to learn not one, but two additional languages throughout high school. I believe in order to have a diverse community that is able to support one another fully, you must immerse yourself in the community and learn things that are unfamiliar, this is why I have decided to learn Spanish and ASL. We have a high deaf and Hispanic population in Salem, and being able to hold a conversation is not only necessary, but respectful as well. I would love to continue learning those languages to become fluent.
Although I am not planning on taking a gap year, these are projects and passions I am planning on continuing through college and even after college as well. These are important and personal to my heart and things I know that are not only good for others, but myself as well, as I am fortunate enough to get to participate in these projects. Thank you for your time.
-Sincerely, Justice Presley